WWL: Lumberjacks down SELA with stifling defense, UNO looms

There's no such thing as an ugly road win. But if the first 15 minutes of Stephen F. Austin's triumph in Hammond, Louisiana could be separated from the final outcome, Saturday's contest was downright vile.

It took more than seven minutes for the Lumberjacks to get on the board. Turnovers and missed free throws prolonged the goose egg until TJ Holyfield got inside on a dish from freshman Kevon Harris for a bucket. The craziest part of all? SFA was only down five points.

"Defense was all we had in the first half," said head coach Kyle Keller. But they did have it, and it was impressive. After a successful 2-0 afternoon for SFA (Mark Kellogg's Ladyjacks romped to a 92-62 win), both basketball teams sit in position to contend for the SLC title with just a couple weeks left in the season. For the men, the game of the year, at New Orleans, looms on Thursday.

But for now, let's focus on this last weekend. Here's what we learned on Saturday:

Can we not get some football pads for Ty Charles? -

Basketball is not technically a full-contact sport. Don't tell that to junior forward Ty Charles. The Lumberjacks' star has battled injuries all season and clearly, even when he's not shooting well as has been the case the last couple times out, SFA has a completely different team with him on the floor.

Whether he's wrenching the ball from an opponents hand, diving on the floor, playing gritty in the paint, or drawing technical fouls with his mouth, Ty Charles is a dude as they say on this team. He's also sacrificing his body an awful lot.

After recovering (mostly) from shoulder injury and broken hand that forced him to miss most of the summer and 10 games, Charles has come on strong over the last couple weeks. He's also twisted his ankle, banged his head on the floor, and walked gingerly off the court in each of his last two games at least once.

It's scary, both for Charles' health, and for the health of a team that needs him desperately if they're to make any kind of postseason run in Katy. There are few guys who can spark a team the way Charles does. Look no further than the offensive runs that follow his big plays - like this dunk and the 10-3 game-winning Lumberjacks scoring run that followed:

It's better to be good than lucky. It's even better to be both -

A couple weeks ago, I shot down the notion that luck had carried SFA past Northwestern State. That doesn't mean luck can't work in their favor. Kevon Harris, ladies and gentlemen:

With the shot clock running down, Harris sent off an answered prayer. It came at a crucial time, and with SELA later pulling within three, factored heavily into the final outcome. But sometimes, players just make their own luck.

See, nobody has been better over the last week than the Lumberjacks' #1. Harris seemed to be in somewhat of a funk through parts of January but his driving skills have been well displayed in the past few days. When you're playing good defense, making the right passes, and attacking the way Harris has, you earn a made shot like that. Lucky? Sure, a bit. Or just a good player starting to become great.

As Harris has smashed through that "freshman wall," as Keller called it last month, the timing couldn't be better. Leon Gilmore and Dallas Cameron, probably the two most consistent players in January, have both been struggling from the floor over the last couple weeks. Ivan Canete, the team's leading scorer, has been searching for his jump shot again as well. If those players find their stuff again, and Harris continues at his current rate, the Lumberjacks will be a very tough out in Katy next month.

"[Teams] get better, or they get worse" -

On Saturday evening, SFA won its fourth-straight game. It's their longest winning streak of the season and has put them squarely in position to make a final push for a fifth-straight SLC title.

Meanwhile, the last team to beat SFA, Sam Houston State, fell at Incarnate Word. Since beating the Lumberjacks on February 2nd, the Bearkats have lost four of five. They have fallen from atop the standings to fourth, just a half game ahead of fifth-place Houston Baptist.

Kyle Keller said it best to his team shortly after beating Southeastern Louisiana:

He echoed the same sentiment in our post-game conversation. I brought up Sam Houston State's fall. "We only control us," he replied. And while his team continues to improve, weathering the storms, overcoming talent deficiencies at times, and taking care of business, everything seems to be falling into place in the last weeks.

Which leads us to...

The battle for the Southland Conference title is now a two-horse race -

Barring a collapse, the SLC title race seems mostly set. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has charged back to the top, sitting in third. My gut has been known to be wrong before, but it's telling me now that they won't factor into the final outcome.

It has come down to two teams: Stephen F. Austin and New Orleans. Oh, and guess what? They play each other on Thursday in a contest that could end up being the de facto league title game.

For all the improvement that SFA has continued to show, New Orleans is still really, really good at home. Drop the game this week and the #DriveForFive essentially ends. But there remains good reason to think the Lumberjacks could make a successful business trip to the Big Easy. For one, they've beat this team once already.

For another, it's just one game. "We can handle small bundles," Keller said on Saturday. "Our guys haven't gone through this before, at least in their current roles. But they have won one road game, or one home game. They can handle that."

No looking ahead. Just one game. Winner takes the Southland Conference drivers' seat.

Now, enjoy Keller's favorite play of the year. And chemistry this team didn't have even a few weeks ago -

Ty Charles diving for the ball (what else is new?), TJ Holyfield saving the ball in bounds, Leon Gilmore with the pass to Dallas Cameron, Dallas with the dish to Kevon Harris. Beautiful.